Wedding photographer for cheerful couples, small businesses + families. Shop owner of lists that make life easier. Little mama living in the sunshine on the salty aired Outer Banks of North Carolina with her waves.

All articles filed in happy

Mike Hedgepeth wasn’t ever a ladies man. Like really. He didn’t have many girlfriends and when we started dating, that became his first serious relationship, EVER! I however had a lot more experience in the long term relationship department and I thought to myself for the first couple of months – is this guy real?…

You may have read this blog post from a few months back about how Mike and I have lost a crazy amount of weight since starting Dave Ramsey. We started last July and by fall had lost over FIFTY POUNDS with no new weight-loss program or routine…just LITERALLY budgeting! How crazy is that?! Even crazier…

For seven years, I’ve run a business that has grown so beautifully and served some of the most incredible couples and families and small businesses. I have also grown three little girls and raised them to be joyful, wild and completely hilarious and maintained a deep and loving relationship with my BFF Mike Hedgepeth. We’ve…

Voxering with my friend Elizabeth Henson last week I kept mentioning to her I was feeling frustrated. I was just having this off day and I couldn’t pin point the freaking problem. Then, the more frustrated I became, the more I started to feel ungrateful. Ick, I don’t like that feeling because ungratefulness snowballs into…

One of the biggest hurdles I ever leapt over was when I decided to trust a group of women with a different part of my heart. Not just the “we’re in the same industry, yay!” part of my life…but a part I didn’t even know much about yet. The part where I started a walk…

We really should have them lay in their beds at night and get better at falling asleep in their own space. Yeah, we REALLY should. It’s what you’re supposed to do. Sometimes we do, most of the time lately though…we don’t. I wonder if I’m making the “right” decision. If having your child not fall…

Hilariously…you’ll read in the LAST Ellie sweater & heels post that I was so sad about losing her 3 year sweater pictures. After all, I had been late before…but never LOST or missed the pictures in these series before! So you’ll read about me feeling bad about that and then guess what actually happened? I…

On January 1, some time after 6pm…I officially logged off of Instagram and Facebook for a period of time that wasn’t pre-determined. My first goal was a week, then it turned into TWO…then…THREE?! I mean…for a girl that hasn’t been off social media for more than a few days in seven years, this was quite…

Christmas just came…and Mike struggled again with getting it out of me. “But what do you want?” No Mike, really…just more Papermate Flair pens…please! Make my office supply loving heart happy…get me PRACTICAL things, lol! This has been me for a long time. In another time in our lives…I would request diamonds or more expensive things…

Sometimes the Lord just leaves me speechless and moves in ways I can’t even believe I refused to see in a previous life, when I was completely disconnected from him. It actually blows my mind. One of the ways I am shocked at my emotional and physical response to His ways is through the most…

It’s the strangest thing to not pick up my phone and continually check in on my notifications and what my friends, colleagues and connections are doing…but it’s really amazing at the same time. Here’s what I’ve learned in one week of not opening up social media, AT ALL, for any reason. (And if you know…

This girl has exploded into a total force to be reckoned with, she is SO spunky and embodies a lot of sass her older sisters have and it’s PURE entertainment! When this little girl marches up to you and points that finger in your face or tells you what’s on her mind…you listen! HAHA! Autumn…you…